ergyman and royalist whose lively
style and witty observations would naturally place him with the gay
Caroline poets. His best known works are _The Holy War, The Holy State and
the Profane State, Church History of Britain_, and the _History of the
Worthies of England. The Holy and Profane State_ is chiefly a biographical
record, the first part consisting of numerous historical examples to be
imitated, the second of examples to be avoided. The _Church History_ is not
a scholarly work, notwithstanding its author's undoubted learning, but is a
lively and gossipy account which has at least one virtue, that it
entertains the reader. The _Worthies_, the most widely read of his works,
is a racy account of the important men of England. Fuller traveled
constantly for years, collecting information from out-of-the-way sources
and gaining a minute knowledge of his own country. This, with his
overflowing humor and numerous anecdotes and illustrations, makes lively
and interesting reading. Indeed, we hardly find a dull page in any of his
numerous books.

JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-1667). Taylor was the greatest of the clergymen who
made this period famous, a man who, like Milton, upheld a noble ideal in
storm and calm, and himself lived it nobly. He has been called "the
Shakespeare of divines," and "a kind of Spenser in a cassock," and both
descriptions apply to him very well. His writings, with their exuberant
fancy and their noble diction, belong rather to the Elizabethan than to the
Puritan age.

From the large number of his works two stand out as representative of the
man himself: _The Liberty of Prophesying_ (1646), which Hallam calls the
first plea for tolerance in religion, on a comprehensive basis and on
deep-seated foundations; and _The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living_
(1650). To the latter might be added its companion volume, _Holy Dying_,
published in the following year. _The Holy Living and Dying_, as a single
volume, was for many years read in almost every English cottage. With
Baxter's _Saints' Rest, Pilgrim's Progress_, and the _King James Bible_, it
often constituted the entire library of multitudes of Puritan homes; and as
we read its noble words and breathe its gentle spirit, we cannot help
wishing that our modern libraries were gathered together on the same
thoughtful foundations.

RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691). This "busiest man of his age" strongly suggests
Bunyan in his life and writings. Like Bunyan, he was poor and